


take a hint

by shymoon



Series: all i need is six [1]
Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, and ofc he's a dick, henry's in this sorry:(, this a repost bc i had issues with the previous version
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25173103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shymoon/pseuds/shymoon
Summary: Cathy gasped and feigned being hurt. “What are you trying to say? I’m a bad fake girlfriend? You don’t want us to be fake girlfriends anymore?”Kat pushed Cathy’s shoulder and laughed. “You know what I mean. You didn’t even know you were my fake girlfriend until 5 minutes ago anyways.”orThe fake dating x college parrward au nobody asked for.
Relationships: Katherine Howard/Catherine Parr
Series: all i need is six [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1827490
Comments: 33
Kudos: 110





	1. one

**Author's Note:**

> names/nicknames & age:  
> • catalina "lina" de aragón: 27  
> • jane seymour: 26  
> • anne boleyn: 23  
> • anna von kleve: 23  
> • catherine "cathy" parr: 21  
> • katherine "kat (but also each queen has a different nickname for her so i won't put them all here)" howard: 19  
> • henry tudor: 26
> 
> i'm aware their ages don't reflect the real-life queens' age order or even any cast's age order. i'm just taking creative liberty with this one lol. also, i wanna apologize for any errors in the fic regarding the queens' lifestyles! i'm not from england, and i never attended drama school. i'm writing based on what i've heard/read, so let me know if you find that some parts are super inaccurate.

Nights out were not exactly Kat’s thing. It wasn’t that she had anything against them. She would simply much rather stay in and cuddle with someone. That was her original plan this Friday night, but then Anne had dragged her out of the house saying that she needed to enjoy her college days before they were over. So, here she was, sitting alone at the bar while Anne was off somewhere chatting someone up.

Kat shifted a bit on the squeaky stool, trying to find some semblance of comfort in such a foreign environment. She has been to a pub before, but she was no regular, unlike her housemates who were absent. All six of them were supposed to meet at the pub that night, but then everyone bailed except her dear cousin who had now also ditched her. Catalina felt too exhausted to go out after her first week of teaching teenagers, Jane had to cover a friend’s shift at the clinic, Anna had to rest for her football game the next day, and Cathy didn’t have a legitimate reason to stay home. She did feel bad for “abandoning” (as Kat phrased it) her youngest housemate, so she promised she would join the duo after she was done reading the latest novel she picked up.

It was already nearly time for Kat to head home though. Kat had made a deal with her older cousin/legal guardian; if nothing interesting happened by 9, she would go home. As Kat glanced over to the wall clock for the nth time that night, the 19 year-old was glad to see the minute hand telling her she only had to suffer for 10 more minutes before she could leave.

Just as Kat was typing out a text to group chat her housemates were all in to let them know that she was going to head home, the college student felt someone coming her way. Feeling her seat neighbour watching her, she decided to look over. Her eyes landed on a tall, large man who was smiling at her in what she would assume to be a seductive manner. Had she been a little less sober and a little more into men, she might have found him charming.

Unfortunately for the stranger, she was neither. She smiled politely back at him before refocusing on her phone. He seemed to have misunderstood her action since he decided to start a conversation by asking her, “so do the curtains match the drapes? Because as nice as pink tips are, I do hope I won’t find such a thing down there.”

Kat stopped mid-text and gave the man a look of shock and disdain. Don’t get her wrong. This wasn’t the first time she had been hit on, nor was it the crudest thing she had ever heard. But she had had a long first week getting used to the rigorous schedule of drama school, and the last thing she needed was some old man hitting on her.

“Come on, I was just messing around,” he added and laughed. “You just seemed lonely and I hate seeing a pretty girl be sad.”

Kat just nodded and sent a “call me, 911. go along w what i say” to the group chat.

“Silent treatment, huh? Fair, I mean we don’t know each other… yet. I’m Henry. What’s your name?” He asked and extended his hand.

“Katherine,” she replied without shaking his hand. The redheaded man didn’t seem deterred by Kat refusing to shake his hand or her short and dry response. In fact, he took it as a sign that this was going somewhere. He pushed his right elbow a bit, leaning closer towards Kat and was about to say something before her phone started to ring.

Without looking at the caller ID, Kat picked up and said, “hi, babe.”

“Are you okay? Does Anna have to beat someone up?” Kat recognized Cathy’s voice almost immediately.

“It’s alright, love. How about I come to your place then?” Kat asked, ignoring Cathy’s words.

“Oh, it’s that kind of situation.” Kat heard Cathy say along with some shuffling noises. “You’re at the pub Anna used to work at yeah? I’m at the library nearby, I’ll come meet you at the bus stop in 5 minutes.”

“Sounds good, love you,” Kat responded sweetly, pretending to be unaware of Henry’s gaze. Hanging up, she started to put on the jacket she had draped on her thighs.

“Aw, leaving so soon?” Henry asked after taking a sip of his drink.

“Yeah, I’m going to see my girlfriend,” Kat lied, but Henry didn’t have to know that. She had hoped that learning that Kat was in a relationship would make him back off, but he persisted in his advances.

“What kind of person would leave their lovely girlfriend all alone? I think you could do much better. Maybe one day you’ll come around and realize what you’ve been missing. Hope I get to see you ‘round, Katherine,” he said and winked.

“Bye.”

As she headed towards the bus stop, she sent Anne a quick text letting her know she had left just in case she wouldn’t see the group chat messages. With her eyes glued to her phone, Kat wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings when she felt a pair of hands grab her arms before she collided against the person’s body.

Kat’s body stiffened until she recognized a familiar face. “Hey, stranger,” said Cathy.

“Thank god you’re not a stranger.” Kat groaned and hugged Cathy, letting her arm fall over the older girl’s backpack.

Cathy snickered and put an arm around her housemate’s shoulder as they walked towards the bus stop. “I’m assuming you didn’t have fun at the pub?”

“Unless you count some old redheaded man trying, and failing, to flirt with you, then no, I didn’t have fun.” Kat sighed. Even though she would have rather stayed home, she had hoped that this night would have turned out to be an eventful one. 

“Want to talk about it?”

“He was not smooth at all and a bit arrogant. And honestly, he seemed a bit creepy. I thought Anna said this pub was more for college students.”

“Geez, how old was the bloke?”

“Maybe like Catalina or Jane’s age, mid to late twenties. So, I guess not that old…”

Cathy pulled a face and instinctively pulled Kat closer to her. “It’s still weird. He didn’t do anything to you, did he?” She suddenly took a more serious tone.

“No, I was just a bit uncomfortable, but I wouldn’t have been if I were home.”

Cathy shook her head and smiled. “Fine, I’ll be on your side next time Anne tries to convince you of going out. To be fair though, you could’ve met a pretty girl tonight.”

“But I didn’t,” Kat deadpanned.

“How about I ask Anne to bring you to a gay bar or a lesbian bar next time?”

“Next time?” Kat whined, making Cathy laugh as they waited for their bus to arrive. 

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

After an uneventful night, Kat spent the whole weekend doing exactly what she had intended to in the first place: read and cuddle. Her cuddle buddy differed, depending on which housemate of hers chose to sit on the same sofa as her, but most of the time, Kat was either snuggled up against Cathy who was studying or Anna who claimed that there was only one sofa that was excellent for napping. That Sunday, it was Anna.

“Why are you mad?” Turning her head around towards Anna, Kat noticed she still had her eyes shut despite having heard her talk just seconds ago.

“I’m not mad.”

“Kit, you’ve been breathing heavily for at least the past 2 minutes, and I would’ve assumed you were reading some erotica if it weren’t for the grumbling that’s accompanied said breathing,” Anna argued.

Kat sat up and attempted to hit Anna on her arm, but the latter caught her wrist with her eyes still closed. “Oh my god, your teammates weren’t joking around with your nickname. You really are a ninja.”

Anna laughed and finally decided to abandon the idea of napping while dropping Kat’s hand. “Don’t try to change the subject. What’s got your blood boiling, love?”

“I’m just frustrated at this one character in my book. He’s just so… dense!” Kat groaned and let her head fall back. “He’s just like that man I met on Friday. Totally doesn’t get when someone is clearly uninteresting in his advances.”

On the way home from Anna’s (victorious) game yesterday, Kat had reassured the whole household (mostly Jane and Anne) in the car that nothing happened to her the night before. It didn’t stop the girls from worrying about Anne’s baby cousin though. Even though Kat was no longer a child, she did have a history of being chased by boys who didn’t understand what “no” meant, and that never ended well.

“I swear I’m alright,” Kat added, noticing the frown appearing on Anna’s face. “I doubt I’ll even see him again, but if I do, I’ll let you punch him.”

Anna smiled at that. “Regardless of whether you see him again, he’s a prick. Kind of reminds me of an ex of mine. Well, he wasn’t really an ex since we saw each other for barely 2 months, but he did date Lina for a solid three years.”

“You had the same ex?!” Kat had her eyes wide open and her mouth agape. “How did I not know this about you and Lina in the 4 years I’ve known you?”

“What did you not know about me?” Catalina entered the living room with two cups of tea in her hands. She put her cup down and handed Kat hers.

“You and Anna have the same ex?”

“Oh yeah, we do. He was my first actual boyfriend. I mean I sort of dated his older brother for a week before him, but I dated Henry for 3 years when I was 15 and he was 14. He wasn’t that bad at first, but by the end, it felt like he was just dragging me along. Funny thing is I believed he dated your cousin right after me. Actually, come to think of it, it wasn’t really funny. The age difference was strange.” Catalina noted.

“Wait a minute, you, Anna and Anne shared an ex?” Kat put a hand on her chest and fell back on the sofa dramatically. “I’ve been betrayed.”

“Oh, cut it out.” Catalina rolled her eyes playfully. “We get it. You’re a musical theatre student. No need to act dramatic at all times. We have enough of that with one stage actress in the house.” She said the last part loud enough for Anne to hear.

As if on cue, Anne yelled, “what did I do this time.” A few seconds later, she popped her head in.

“You didn’t tell your cousin about our shared ex,” Anna explained.

Anne stared at the trio, confused for a moment before remembering who they were talking about. “Well, there’s not much to say,” Anne said, leaning on one side of the archway. “I was 14, he was 17. He thought I was cute, I thought having the attention of an older boy was cool. We dated. He was an arse. He thought I was too immature. We broke up a year later, and now I realize how creepy he was. I have an excuse for dating him. I was super young and didn’t know better. Jane, though, she was already friends with Lina and she still dated him.”

“Jane?!”

“What? I literally just stepped inside the house,” said Jane from the front door. Cathy followed behind her with a few books in her arms.

“Ooh, are we having a house meeting?” Cathy shook off her coat and sauntered over to the empty loveseat, gently dropping the books on the ground along with her backpack.

“Anna, Lina, Anne, and Jane all have the same ex,” Kat informed Cathy who didn’t react the same way Kat had hoped. “Why do you not seem surprised? Be shocked with me, will you?”

“I kind of already knew that,” she said gingerly. “Lina and I saw him a few weeks ago when we went to the market.”

“So, I was the only one who was out of the loop?” Kat directed her pout at her older cousin.

“It’s not like I go ‘round telling everyone about our mutual ex.” Anne tried to reason.

“And there wouldn’t be much to say about him,” Anna added, high fiving Anne.

“He wasn’t that bad,” said Jane.

“You say that because you dated him for 6 months before he broke up with you because he didn’t want to date you while you studied a semester abroad,” Lina countered.

And just like that, the girls started to dish on their ex to Kat and Cathy. In the end, Kat had to admit that Anne and Anna were right. There wasn’t much to him other than how much of a massive arse he was. The only thing they were grateful for was that they didn’t have to see him anymore.

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

Anne was a bit worried that Kat was genuinely hurt after feeling like she had kept this part of her life from her, but the younger cousin reassured her that she was mostly joking that day. It had happened a few years before Anne became Kat’s legal guardian anyways. She did wonder how in the world four of her five housemates had dated the same guy. What were the chances?

“Is this seat taken?” A voice brought her out of her daze. Kat looked up to see a man gesturing to the empty seat in front of her. She had just finished her shift at the café, but decided to stay awhile. Cathy had started hers, and she was going to be all alone so Kat thought she could help out if there was a rush of clients. So, no, the seat the man was talking about was not taken, but she really didn’t want to sit with some stranger when there were empty tables. Naturally, Kat lied, “yeah, I’m waiting for someone.”

He nodded and took a seat at the table right next to Kat’s. “Your girlfriend?” Kat frown at him slightly. People didn’t tend to assume she was into women. “You’re Katherine, right?” And now, she was totally freaked out by this strange man who knew her name. He, on the other hand, found this quite entertaining, if his laugh indicated anything. “We met the other night. Henry. Remember?”

She looked at him for a little longer until it clicked. “Right, Henry from the pub,” she said and mentally groaned.

“So, are you waiting for your girlfriend or did she leave you again and you’re waiting for a new date?”

“Yep, waiting for my girlfriend. She’ll be here soon,” Kat responded and wanted to slap herself for adding that last part. How and where the hell was she supposed to find herself a girlfriend in a few minutes? Thankfully for her, he seemed satisfied with her answer and left her alone for a bit. That lasted for a few minutes when Henry interrupted Kat’s thoughts again.

“You sure she’s coming? I’m sorry, but I think she’s standing you up.” Kat could tell he was attempting to sound sympathetic, but had he pulled this in an audition for a role, he would be the last person she’d cast. He may have said he felt sorry, but his voice was dripping with hope and joy.

At that moment, Cathy entered her field of vision. With a nearly empty café, Cathy had decided to occupy herself by cleaning up a bit, but there was only so much cleaning she could do until she had to accept that she would just have to wait for more customers to come. So, the older college student leaned a bit against the counter and gave Kat a gentle smile when their eyes met, but then frowned when she looked at who Kat was talking to.

“She’s your girlfriend?” Kat heard Henry ask. Turning her attention back to Henry, she saw him nod his head in Cathy’s direction. Cathy, of course! Kat thought.

“Uh, yeah that’s her.” With her phone under the table, she quickly tried to discretely change her lockscreen to any picture of Cathy she had. She then brought her phone out from under the table and turned it on, pretending to look at the time. “I thought her shift was ending soon, but I guess I’ll just have to wait a bit longer.”

Sure enough, Henry took a glance at Kat’s screen and she saw the ghost of a disappointed look on his face when he realized she wasn’t lying about her girlfriend.

“I see… As much as I’d like to accompany you until she’s done, I’m afraid I have to go,” he told her and got up to throw his empty cup. “See you some other time, I guess.”

Kat watched him leave with a strained smile. “I sure hope not,” she mumbled once he was out of earshot.

A moment later, Cathy took the seat in front of Kat. “Why were you talking to Henry?”

“You know him?”

“Yeah, he’s Lina’s ex. And Anne’s. and Jane’s. And Anna’s.” Cathy explained as if it was obvious.

“No way, he’s the mutual ex? He’s the old bloke I told you about last Friday.”

The pair started laughing in disbelief, ignoring the looks they were receiving from the other two patrons in the café. So, it seemed like Henry was now interested in five of the six housemates. Again, Kat wondered: what were the odds?

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

Kat had forgotten all about changing her lockscreen until Cathy brought it up a few days later while the two were studying. Even though Kat had abandoned her history major to pursue a career in musical theatre (thanks to Anne encouraging her to follow her dreams) last year, she still genuinely enjoyed learning about historical events and figures. That was why she would regularly join Cathy during her study periods, as long as Cathy didn’t mind of course.

“I think you need a bit of a break.” Kat yawned and stood up. Cathy had a test coming up and Kat offered to help her study, but she also wanted to enjoy one of the rare sunny days they had. So, they decided to head to a nearby park to study, which they had been doing nearly all day.

Cathy was still busy editing a few parts in her revised notes, but she did spare a second to ask Kat what time it was. Turning on her phone, Kat showed her screen to Cathy and continued to stretch.

When Kat heard nothing but silence, she looked at Cathy and was met with an amused expression. “What is it? Is my hair a total bird’s nest?” Her hands reached for her messy bun to undo it and retie it properly.

“Am I your lockscreen?” Cathy asked, ignoring Kat’s concerns. Cathy took Kat’s phone from her hands to show her the picture she was talking about.

Kat tilted her head, puzzled. In all honesty, Kat rarely paid attention to her wallpaper. She changed it often, but after the first day, she might as well just have a plain screen as a wallpaper. When Cathy mentioned it though, the image staring back at Kat brought her back to a few days ago in the café with Henry. She was so desperate to convince the man that she had a girlfriend, she didn’t pay much attention to the actual picture she had chosen, as long as Cathy was in it.

Fortunately, it was quite a nice picture. The image before her eyes was a sleeping Cathy with a book resting open on her chest. She was sprawled on the sofa in the living room, and Kat remembered that she had taken a photo to send it to the group chat to let them know that the pair were indeed home safe while the others were out of town for various reasons. Now that she was paying more attention to the picture, Kat had to admit that 1) she was very lucky to have chosen that picture as her lockscreen, 2) Cathy looked so endearing in that picture with her mouth slightly open and one of her arms hanging off the sofa.

“You weren’t supposed to see that.” Kat tried to snatch her phone back with no success and felt her cheeks warm up.

“Is that so?” Cathy teased her and ran away from her.

“Come back here!” Kat shouted as she started to chase Cathy around, leaving behind their picnic basket and books.

Despite being a bookworm, Cathy was nowhere near being out of shape. After a few months of living together, her housemates noticed how strange Cathy’s sleeping schedule was and how she would spend days cooped up in her room, reading or studying. They soon got Anna to drag her out and run with her at least once a week. And it paid off, considering that Cathy managed to stay of out Kat’s reach for a few minutes. Kat eventually caught up to her though, which made sense since she did accompany Anna on runs more often than Cathy did.

Kat tackled Cathy to the ground and tried to soften their fall so that neither of them would actually get injured. They both rolled on their back while laughing and trying to catch their breath. “For the record, I think it’s cute that I’m your lockscreen.”

“Really? And why is that?” Kat stood up before helping Cathy up.

“Because it means that I’m your favourite,” she replied smugly.

“Shh! Don’t tell Anne or Anna.” Kat put a finger against her lips and giggled.

They hadn’t run that far away from their original spot, so they were sitting back down in no time. Although just as they made themselves comfortable, a very undesirable view awaited them. “Shit,” Kat cursed under her breath.

“What is it?”

“Just go along with what I say and do,” Kat said quickly before readjusting her position and leaning closer towards Cathy who didn’t mind, but was definitely confused.

“Katherine! Fancy seeing you here!” Cathy heard a man say. Turning her head in the direction of the voice, she recognized her housemates’ ex approaching them.

“Henry” was the only word that left Kat’s mouth.

“Isn’t funny that we keep running into each other?” He grinned at Kat, completely ignoring Cathy who was sitting right beside her.

“It’s like you’re everywhere.” Kat put on her forced customer-service-smile, which made it hard for Cathy to keep a straight face.

“That’s not really fair is it, love? I could say that about you too. I mean, I do feel like everywhere I look, I see you.” He winked, and Cathy almost gagged. “Maybe it’s a sign that we should get to know each other.” And cue the gagging.

“School is a bit overwhelming so, thanks, but no thanks... Have you met my girlfriend by the way?” Kat gestured to Cathy, trying to pretend she wasn’t cringing at what Henry just said.

For the first time since he’d arrived, the redheaded man paid attention to the other girl sitting on the picnic blanket. “Hey,” Cathy said and nodded his way. An expression flashed through Henry’s face, but whatever it was, it was gone before Cathy or Kat could decipher what it was.

“Hi, glad to finally meet you.”

“Finally?” Cathy cocked an eyebrow and turned to Kat.

“It’s just that the last times Katherine and I have met, she’s mentioned you, but you were never there. Except when you were working at the café. I was starting to think that she was making this whole ‘girlfriend’ thing up,” he explained and smiled.

“Nope, not made up. I was just uh…” She looked at Kat, not sure of what she had told him.

“Busy,” said Kat. She put her hand over Cathy’s as she rested her head on the older girl’s shoulder. “She’s a double major in history and English, so she’s always working super hard, but I’m so proud of her.” Kat smiled dreamily at Cathy before kissing her cheek. She could’ve sworn she saw Cathy blush, but her attention was quickly diverted back to Henry who still had not left.

“I see. Well, I was just coming over to say ‘hi’, but I’ll return to my jog. It was nice meeting you,” he said. With that, he walked away.

Kat signed in relief and stepped away from Cathy. “Sorry about that.” She bit her lip and offered her an apologetic smile. “He seriously never seemed to understand that I wasn’t interested in him even when I told him I had a girlfriend.”

“You don’t ever have to apologize for that.” Cathy shook her head and gave Kat a side hug. “Do whatever it takes to make him leave you alone.”

“I’m hoping he’s backed off for good after today.”

Cathy gasped and feigned being hurt. “What are you trying to say? I’m a bad fake girlfriend? You don’t want us to be fake girlfriends anymore?”

Kat pushed Cathy’s shoulder and giggled. “You know what I mean. You didn’t even know you were my fake girlfriend until 5 minutes ago anyways.”

“Fine, fine, fine. Just don’t be surprised that when you become the lead star of your own West End show, there’ll be a rumour going around that K Howard is a heartbreaker who just loves ‘em and leaves ‘em. And everyone will believe it because I’ll tell them that you dumped me barely a week after we started dating.”

Kat narrowed her eyes at Cathy and smiled. “How dare my first love try and taint my reputation.”

“What can I say? People love a dramatic love story.”

“Oh, so this is a love story?”

“Of course! I’m obviously the girl who still yearns for her first love.”

“And trying to ruin her first love’s reputation is the best thing she could think of to win her back?” Kat asked, amused.

Cathy shrugged and started to put her books away. “You know how it is, desperate time calls for desperate measure. After all, I need to get you back before you become mega famous and forget all about me.”

“I could never forget the great Catherine Parr.”

Cathy tapped a finger to her chin and pretended to think about it. “Yeah, I’m not sure that I can just take your word for it.”

“How about I buy your silence with cuddles then?” Kat offered, but Cathy pulled a face and shook her head. “Fine, a coffee?”

“That’s more like it.” Cathy nodded and smiled, making Kat roll her eyes and laugh.

“Come on, you coffee addict. If we don’t hurry up, you’ll end up staying up all night because of the caffeine in your system. Then Lina’s going to be mad at you tomorrow for not getting enough sleep… again.”

Cathy shivered. “Mad Lina is so scary. Gives me flashbacks to when she used to babysit me, and I coloured over her notes.” Cathy grabbed Kat’s hand to get up and started to put everything away in their bags before heading to the nearest coffee shop.

The pair continued talking about their hypothetical relationship and break up as they sipped on their drinks, and all the way home. It was all fun and games, but what they didn’t know was that they would actually have to live out their fake relationship for a while longer.

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

Kat’s semester was over in early December, but Cathy still had exams. So, she accompanied Cathy to uni when she didn’t have to work at the café. The whole household had planned to vacation the following week at Catalina’s parents’ beach house in Málaga, but until then, everyone (other than Kat) in the house was busy with school or work. So, going to school with Cathy during her free time was definitely was entertaining than staying home alone all day. Plus, she could feel like she was doing something productive instead of lazing around in the house, but for whatever reason, the universe decided to punish her.

Cathy had reserved a study room and Kat was quizzing her on the timeline and historical figures of Europe during World War II when she spotted a figure in the distance moving around. Kat was focused on reading Cathy’s notes and making sure what she was telling Kat was accurate, but the moving behind Cathy was becoming too distracting. So, she decided to check out what was going on.

“Of course,” she muttered, catching Cathy off-guard.

“What do you mean ‘of course’?” Cathy asked. She had just gone on a small tangent about how her professor had spent half of a lesson talking about him meeting an ex-Nazi SS and how he was smelled strange, but couldn’t pinpoint what it was. “Oh, do you mean like all Nazis must smell awful because they’re monsters?”

“Henry,” Kat simply replied and looked back at Cathy’s notes.  
Cathy tilted her head, a little lost. “What was his last name? I don’t really remember writing down a ‘Henry’.”

“No, I meant Henry’s here,” said Kat, a scowl appearing on her face. “Why is he even hanging out at your uni?”

Hearing his name, Cathy tried to peek behind her, subtly. Soon enough, she saw him waving at them with a grin. In return, Cathy just nodded at him.

Having sensed Kat’s mood change for the worst, Cathy offered, “how about we get out of here and get some pastries? My treat.”

“You need to study,” Kat protested and smiled at Cathy’s attempt to cheer her up. “You’re sweet though.” She winked playfully at her.

“Just sweet?” Cathy pouted.

“You’re salty too sometimes.” Kat shrugged. “Like when you gave Anne the silent treatment for 2 weeks because she ate the last cookie.”

“That was totally her fault. I called dibs on it! You know how delicious Jane’s cookies are, and she’s rarely baking anymore because of work. Who knows when’s the next time we’ll get to have some.” Cathy let out a loud sigh.

“You know that I was the one who made them last time right? Jane gave me her recipe.”

Cathy gasped. “Are you serious? So, you’re telling me that this whole time, I’ve been doing Jane’s chores so she would have more time to bake when you could’ve made those cookies yourself?”

“That’s why you’ve been doing everyone’s laundry?” Kat laughed at Cathy’s dejected expression. “Oh, come here. If you’re not too busy this weekend, we could bake some.”

In an instant, Cathy brightened up and ran over to Kat and peppered her face with kisses as she picked her up from her chair. When she looked back outside of the room, Henry was no longer there. And had she looked over sooner, she would’ve seen his face fall as well as him walking away, much like a child stomping their feet while throwing a tantrum.

But that wasn’t the last they’d see him.

The next time they saw him was while they were last-minute Christmas shopping. They were searching for what kind of artisan soap they could gift each of their housemates. Kat and Cathy had decided to combine their budget that year. It was mostly because they forgot to buy gifts and thought two brains would work faster than one alone, but also because that meant they could afford more lavish gifts. Even though the thought and sentiment behind a gift had more value than its cost, they had to admit that they liked to give more.

They only had a few days left before they would leave for Spain. So, that meant they had to buy the girls’ Christmas gifts as soon as possible. To do that, they went their separate ways in the shop.

Cathy put a bar of lavender soap up to her nose to test whether it truly “smelled relaxing” like Jane had once told her. She sniffed once and scrunched her nose. It didn’t smell bad per se, but she definitely thought that Jane had overhyped the magical healing of using a bar of lavender soap. Cathy shrugged and put the bar in a paper bag nonetheless. She wasn’t the one who would use it, so what she thought of it was pretty much irrelevant. Cathy turned around to find something for Catalina next, but she was unprepared to be blocked by a large body. She started to stumble backwards, but two hands reached forward to steady her.

“Woah there, wouldn’t want to fall and injure such a pretty face now would we?” He chortled. Much to Cathy’s dismay, that man’s voice had become familiar to a point where they knew who was talking without looking at him. Cathy pulled a face, but thanked him regardless. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I ever got your name.”

What Cathy wanted to reply was “and that is one of the rare occasions where you would be right”, but instead, she said, “it’s Catherine.”

“Oh, just like your friend.”

“My girlfriend,” Cathy corrected him.

“You’re still dating?”

To say that Cathy was dumbfounded by Henry’s question would be an understatement. “Yes,” she answered with cocked eyebrow. “Why would we not be together anymore?”

“I used to see to you hang around uni, but not anymore,” he said as if that wasn’t the creepiest explanation ever. How would he even know that? As if he heard her question, he added, “We go to the same school, the three of us.”

Henry was wrong about Kat going to the same school as them, but Cathy didn’t feel the need to correct him. Who knows what he would do to pursue Kat if he found out that she had transferred schools? Although, with the way he was eyeing Cathy, she wasn’t sure if that information would be relevant.

For once, Henry picked up on Cathy’s desire to end this conversation. “I’ll leave you be then. You know where to find me when you realize you could do better,” he said and winked.

Cathy’s jaw dropped. Was he being serious? She absolutely had to tell Kat about this. 

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

When Cathy was reunited with Kat, she forgot all about her encounter with Henry because Kat started ranting about how she found out that one of the shop owners revealed to her that they had had a few thieves in the past and had to invest some money into getting a better security system. “They’re such hard workers! Making all these products by hand and that’s how the world repays them?” She had said while waving her hands around, almost spilling out the items in her bag.

Cathy probably wouldn’t have remembered about the incident hadn’t she seen a redheaded man while she was sitting on the balcony of Catalina’s parents’ beach house with Kat. She immediately put down her mojito and quickly sank down her chaise long even though there was no way that man would see her. He was on the beach, about 100m away, the balcony she and Kat were on was on the second floor of the house, which was resting atop a small cliff. Plus, it was nearly impossible for Henry to be on the same beach in Málaga as them. In Cathy’s defence, she felt like she had seen Henry in the most random places in London, so why could not be extended to Spain. And in terms of strange occurrences, she had to tell Kat about the most recent one.

“What are you doing, silly?” Kat looked down at Cathy through her pink sunglasses.

“I thought I saw Henry,” said Cathy as she pushed herself back up. “Speaking of which, I forgot to tell you this the other week, but I think Henry fancies me. I bumped into him at the shops, and he basically told me to call him when I would dump you for him.”

“I know this probably shouldn’t be funny, but the nerve of that guy! He really thinks he’s hot shit.” Kat scoffed. “I’m not gonna lie though,” she added and readjusted herself on her chaise longue, “as much as it sucks for you, I am a bit relieved he doesn’t have a thing for me anymore.”

Cathy groaned and closed her eyes. She didn’t blame Kat for feeling that way. She would feel the same once Henry moved on. She just hated that she would have to be the object of his affection. Well, more like the object of his obsession. “The worst part is that we go to the same uni, and honestly, I thought avoiding people in uni would be pretty easy, but he is literally everywhere. He told me that he used to see us together ‘all the time’. What the hell is that supposed to mean? Does he even realize how stalker-y he sounds?”

“He’s so obtuse. He probably thinks he’s being flattering.” Kat said before taking a sip of her sangria and falling back down to relax in the sun. Jane and Anna would be back soon with the groceries, and she would have to go help Catalina make supper tonight. So, she tried to enjoy her free time as much as possible.

Cathy tried to relax as well, but having Henry haunt her thoughts made unwinding a difficult task. After a few moments of blissful silence, she suddenly sat back up and turned to Kat with an idea in mind. She took off her sunglasses so that Kat could be exposed to her best attempt at puppy eyes. “Kat,” she called her.

“Yeah?” She said, eyes closed.

“Kat,” Cathy repeated, softening her voice.

“Why are you whining? I thought I was the baby of this household.” Kat didn’t even bother looking at her.

Cathy’s shoulders dropped and so did her face. “Kat, I’m trying to convince you with my puppy face. Will you at least pretend it’s working?”

She flipped her hair to the side, letting the pink tips fall over her chest as she turned her whole body. She grinned, satisfied that she gotten Cathy just a bit riled up in a matter of seconds. “What is it, darling?”

“It’s actually good that you’re calling me ‘darling’ because it’s related to that.”

“It’s related to me impersonating Lina calling you?”

“No,” Cathy said and rolled her eyes. “I have a plan to get Henry to stay away from both of us. Mostly of me now I guess since he’s not interested in you anymore.”

“Go on.”

“Alright, so you know how Henry left us alone after we ‘kissed’?”

“Listen, you’re probably an amazing kisser and I think you’re one of the smartest people I know, but I don’t think kissing whenever he shows up is your brightest idea.”

“Oh my god, I wasn’t going to propose that,” Cathy grumbled, trying to fight off the heat she was feeling rising up to her cheeks. “Although, I guess we should establish some rules if you’re going to go along with my plan… Anyway, stop interrupting me and let me tell you my actual idea.” At that, Kat put her hands up and shrugged. “As I was saying, he didn’t talk to us because we were acting like a couple. So, I wanted to know if you would officially be my fake girlfriend? For a little while longer than you had planned, I mean.” Taking Kat’s silence as a sign of discomfort, Cathy added, “you don’t have to say ye-“

“Yes,” Kat replied, smirking at how quickly Cathy had gotten flustered. “I thought you’d never ask.”


	2. two

So, they were official fake girlfriends now.

That was a thing. Their thing. And it wasn’t weird at all.

They were just two friends baking cookies. Well, Kat was baking and Cathy while the latter just sat on the counter and handed the necessary ingredients. Cathy wasn't really paying attention to Kat while she shared Jane's secret baking “hacks" because all she could think about was their current… situation.

Logically, Cathy knew that being fake girlfriends didn’t have to change anything. They just had to pretend if they saw Henry. Even then, it wasn’t like they were going to start making out.

Were they?

It’s not like Kat specifically said that kissing was off the table and neither had Cathy. At the same time, neither had agreed to kissing.

“What if we kiss?” Cathy blurted.

“You want to kiss me?” Kat briefly froze before continuing to mix the dough. As much as Kat tried to pretend her heart rate was perfectly normal, it was hard to deny that it skipped a beat when she thought about kissing her friend.

“No! I mean not that I don’t want to… or that I want to. You’re a great kisser. Not that I would know! But I’m assuming you would be… Not that I think about that! I—"

“Cathy.” Kat called her name and put one hand on top of hers. “Take a moment to breathe,” she said. “And pass me the bowl of dry ingredients.”

Cathy did as she was told and hoped nobody else in the house heard her. “It’s just that we never established any rules to this whole fake dating thing. I mentioned it in Spain, but we never actually _did_ talk about rules.”

Ever since Cathy had asked to pretend to be girlfriends for a while longer, Kat hadn’t given much to it. This was the first time she realized how serious they were going to have to be. Henry was persistent (to put it gently). They were going to need to be just as persistent about being uninterested if he didn’t understand simple words and needed convincing.

“Alright.” Kat let out the breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. “What do you have in mind?”

“Well, you’re usually touchy-feely already. That doesn’t have to change. It’s actually an advantage for us,” Cathy explained. “We’re only playing this act up in front of Henry, but what do you want to do if we’re with the girls and Henry’s there?”

“Anna’s most likely going to kick his arse if she hears how he’s been acting around us.” Kat joked, but she _had_ considered asking the football player to threaten her ex. “Seriously though, we could probably just tell them what’s going on afterwards.”

Cathy hummed in agreement, biting her lower lip afterwards. They still hadn’t gotten back to the first question she asked though, and truthfully, Cathy didn’t really want to bring it up again. Things were bound to get a little awkward once they talked about kissing. Sure, they weren’t afraid to be more affectionate than some friends, but they weren’t the kind of people who kissed their friends’ lips. So, she hoped the other girl would mention it.

Kat seemed to be on par with Cathy seeing as, after her joke, she remained silent and stuck to preparing the dough. She didn’t know how to discuss that topic casually. Was there even a _casual_ way to approach it?

They stayed in somewhat comfortable silence for a while, playing a game waiting game to see who would break first. It wasn’t until Cathy got up to help Kat form the balls of dough that they decided to talk again.

“So,” they both said at the same time, resulting in both of them snickering.

“You go,” Cathy offered.

“I’m pretty sure you already know what I’m going to say,” Kat responded, refusing to look into Cathy’s eyes.

“I don’t think it’s helpful if we can’t even explicitly state what we want to talk about, Kitty.”

“It’s not like _you’re_ saying it either,” Kat countered and abandoned the cookie dough in favour of crossing her arms, her hands facing upwards as to not touch her body.

“I brought it up earlier,” Cathy retorted.

Kat opened and closed her mouth a few times before settling with furrowing her brows and pouting. Knowing she had won, Cathy fought back the urge to smile. She wasn’t going to rub it in the younger one’s face. Neither said anything again. They just stayed stood still, staring the other down.

“You’re aware that the cookie dough can’t serve as a referee for your staring contest, right?” Anne snorted as she walked in the kitchen to prepare some tea for her and Catalina.

“We’re not having a staring contest,” Cathy replied, keeping her eyes on Kat.

“You sure Kat knows that?” Anna asked. “Babes, Jane wants you to prepare a cup for her as well.”

Anne nodded. “Kitkat, might want to blink sometime soon,” she told her younger cousin over her shoulder. “There’s probably some health risks or something linked not blinking.”

Before Kat even had the chance to reply, Anne yelled out Jane’s name. “I’m literally in the next room, Annie. You don’t have to scream bloody murder.” Jane sighed, but smiled nonetheless. “What is it, dear?”

“What do you know about complications from not blinking?” Anne asked bluntly, which absolutely confused the nurse.

“Kit and Cathy are having a staring contest even though they claim they aren’t, and Annie’s concerned.”

“She’s not being concerned. She’s being annoying,” Kat said and stuck her tongue out.

“Oh, she’s blinked! Damn it! I was rooting for you! We were all rooting for you!” Anne exclaimed, making Anna laugh.

“Is this some pop culture reference I don’t get again?” Jane asked, turning to Cathy who just nodded and mouthed ‘reality TV’.

“What’s with all the commotion on here?” Catalina suddenly walked in. “Annie, do you need help with the tea?”

“It’s alright. Cathy and Kat were just having a staring contest,” Anne explained.

“We were not having a staring contest,” Kat said once again.

“Then, why were neither of you talking when I walked in?” Anne asked. “What were you two having a moment?” She snickered. “Were you gonna kiss or something?”

“What? N-no we-we weren’t!” Kat sputtered.

“We weren’t going to what?” Cathy asked, waiting for her to say it already.

“I’m not saying it.” Kat narrowed her eyes at the shorter girl.

“Okay, you’re denying that you were ‘bout to snog, but I swear you’re just making us all think you’re lying,” said Anna. The other girls all voiced their agreement afterwards, making Kat groan.

“Alright, stop teasing her.” Jane chimed in, waving the others off. “What were you doing then, sweetheart?” She sat down on one of the stools to be closer to Kat and be able to stroke her back.

“Go on, _sweetheart_ , tell ‘em.” Cathy urged the younger girl, fighting off a smirk.

“Cariña, be nice,” Catalina told Cathy in a warning tone.

Although Catalina and Jane were only a few years older than the four others, they both had naturally taken on the ‘mom friend’ role, especially with Cathy and Kat since they were the youngest of the bunch. Anna and Anne were closer in age to the oldest duo, but from time to time, Jane would have to remind Anna that she forgot to pack her football boots, and Catalina would have to hand Anne a napkin from her purse when they were out and she inevitably spilled something.

“Fine,” Kat sighed and let her shoulders drop. “We were _talking_ about kissing. Or we were going to, but then… we kind of chickened out.”

“Oh shit, I was totally joking when I said you were goin’ to kiss.” Anne started to cackle, but pressed her lips in a straight line as she caught Catalina’s glare.

“Wait, so are you two a thing now or?” Anna asked, eyes jumping back and forth between her two youngest housemates.

“Well,” Cathy started and glanced over to Kat to see whether or not they should just tell them what was going on with Henry.

“Because if you are then we—“ Anna started, but Anne made a sound and made a face, seemingly communicating telepathically with the athlete. Anna made an ‘o’ with her mouth and nodded. “Sorry, go on,” she told Cathy.

Only Kat and Cathy seemed confused by what had just happened, but they ignored it since they had a more pressing issue at hand. Cathy figured she could be the one to explain the situation since Kat revealed their whole kissing argument, but she quickly realized she didn’t know about how it all started. So, Kat took the lead.

“Long story short, but Henry used to incessantly flirt with me. So, to get him to back off, I told him I had a girlfriend, but we kept bumping into each other, and he was starting to doubt my lie. By chance, Cathy was there and he assumed she was my girlfriend, so I went along with it. Then—”

“Hold on.” Anne interrupted Kat as she held one hand up and closed her eyes. “I’m sorry, but who the fuck is Henry?”

“Henry Tudor,” said Cathy.

“Henry Tudor?!” Catalina yelled and stood up from her chair.

“As in our ex?” Jane asked.

“Oh dear God.” Anna mumbled and sighed.

“I hate saying God’s name in vain, but Anna is right.” Catalina sat back down, straightening the non-existing wrinkles on her skirt.

The girls continued by telling them that they were trying to push him away by acting like a couple, which did not impress any of their housemates. “You think that’ll fend him off?” Catalina asked, obviously skeptical about this whole plan.

“You sure you don’t want us to just talk to him?”

“Yeah, ‘talk’ to him,” Anne repeated Anna’s words, putting quotation marks when she said ‘talk’.

“We’re not resorting to violence,” Jane scolded them.

“I never said anything about violence, Annie’s the one who said it!” Anna riposted.

“Oh come on, you were _implying_ it,” Anne countered.

“Nobody is beating anyone up… even if it does sound tempting,” Catalina muttered the last part, but Jane heard her and shot her a look telling her to stop.

Truth be told, neither Cathy nor Kat were sure their plan would work. Up until then, Henry had only backed off for a short while even when he saw them coupled up. All they could hope for was that he’d get tired of chasing the girls before they got tired of keeping up their act.

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

Faking it wasn’t that hard. Kat was a pretty affectionate person. It wasn’t rare for her and Cathy to hold hands as they walked down the street. They already cuddled loads at home, and whenever Kat felt particularly excited, she’d sometimes kiss her friend’s cheek.

So, the only thing that really changed was that they dialled up on the PDA. It didn’t matter if he was around or not, they wanted to seem more natural. So, anytime they were out in public, they would act like a couple. Eventually, it became weird for the pair to not be holding the other girl’s hand whenever they were out. It felt strange to not have Cathy’s arm around Kat’s waist or Kat’s arm around Cathy’s shoulders.

So, Cathy took it upon herself to snake her arm around Kat’s waist while taking a stroll down the street. “Just in case he’s around,” she would tell Kat who used the same excuse when she wanted to hold Cathy’s hand. It was a reasonable excuse… in the beginning. They were often near Cathy’s uni, where bumping into Henry was always a possibility. Then, they started to use that excuse when it just didn’t make sense like when they visited Anne’s parents.

It was Anne’s mother’s birthday and she had invited all six of the housemates to the Boleyn home to celebrate. Before the party, Anne had planned to show the girls around the town she grew up in, and her secret hiding place she would go to during her teenage years when she felt lonely. As they walked through the woods, Kat reached for Cathy’s hand.

“Just in case,” Kat said when Cathy looked at her quizzically. There was little to no chance they’d see him in some random forest in Kent. They were both aware of it, but Cathy didn’t point that out. She just held onto Kat’s hand and continued following Anne.

Although they said they’d only play up their relationship outside, Kat ended up yearning Cathy’s touch even at home. She used to mostly cuddle with Anna, but now, she found herself knocking on Cathy’s door if she wasn’t in the living room to ask her to keep her company.

“Of course, you can,” Cathy told her.

“You sure you don’t mind? I know you’re studyi—”

“Just come here, silly,” Cathy said and pulled her into her bedroom, leading them to her bed. She pushed some books out of the way for Kat before hopping on and patting on the spot next to her.

After making herself comfortable, Kat let her head rest on Cathy’s chest. She half-paid attention to the older girl flipping the pages of her textbook, but most of her focus was on Cathy’s breathing. Kat had had a busy Friday with back to back classes and then a shift at the café. She’d wanted to just relax this Saturday, but her mind kept thinking about the long rehearsals she’d have next week. Listening to Cathy breathe had a calming effect on her, and she ended up falling asleep, snuggled against her.

It felt like moments after she fell asleep, she was being woken up. Kat whined and kept her eyes shut. “Wanna nap s’more,” she mumbled.

Cathy chuckled. “It’s nearly 9 PM, love. Lina called us down to go eat hours ago.” She gently poked Kat’s exposed stomach. “You need to eat.” Kat flinched and let out what Cathy assumed was a grunt, but it sounded so adorable. She haphazardly pulled down her shirt that had ridden up during her nap and buried her head into the crook of Cathy’s neck.

“S’cold,” Kat said as she tried to reach for the blanket sitting further at the foot of the bed.

Despite telling Kat they had to go downstairs, Cathy helped her reach the blanket and put it over her body. “Better?” Kat nodded. Cathy leaned a bit away from Kat to grab her phone and suggested, “how about I asked Lina to bring us dinner? I can tell her that I’m super busy studying and we can eat here while we watch something on Netflix.”

“Don’t you actually have to study?” Kat took a peek at Cathy’s face.

She shrugged. “I’ve spent the whole day reading. I could use a break.”

“Sounds good to me.” Kat grinned and sat up to help Cathy set up for their sudden movie night.

They never planned to make this their thing, but from that point forward, it wasn't rare for Kat and Cathy to eat dinner together during the late hours of the night. At first, it was mostly out of convenience. Kat was coming home late after rehearsals and Cathy stayed at the library to work on her research project until the librarian had to kick her out. They would arrive home when it was nearly midnight, and see a tired Jane waiting for them in the living room to make sure they were home safe.

“Janey, just go to bed. We’ll text you when we come back,” Cathy told her once she caught her asleep on one of the sofas.

It started with Kat joining Cathy in quickly eating heated leftovers of whatever meal Catalina cooked earlier in the dimly lit kitchen. As time passed, they realized that they often returned home at around the same time. So, they chose to wait for each other to eat and go over their day. Dinner in the kitchen progressed into eating and then watching an episode of a series in Kat’s room.

They didn’t always come back home extremely late (Jane scolded them into being home at more reasonable hours for at least 4 days a week), nor did they particularly enjoy it. But at least, when they were greeted with the moon as they left their school campus, they knew they had something to look forward to when they got home. A nice peaceful night with one of their favourite people.

“Why are we watching this again?” Cathy asked after taking the last sip of beer left in her bottle.

“I saw it on my feed a few years ago and it looked interesting from the gifs I saw,” said Kat as she closed her laptop. They were watching an American series about two best friends who pretended to date to gain popularity, being the only lesbian couple of their school. “Though from watching the pilot, I’m not sure I want to continue the whole series,” she said and winced. It wasn’t a bad show. It just wasn’t the cute sapphic coming-of-age/comedy show she thought she was getting into.

“Whatever we do, I just hope we don’t end up like those two girls,” said Cathy as she laid back on Kat’s bed.

“Why? You don’t want to have a fake boyfriend while dating me to become more popular?” Kat wiggled her eyebrows playfully and snuggled against Cathy who scrunched her nose at Kat’s idea.

“Never in a million years.”

“What about kissing in front of the whole school to become homecoming queens?”

“Alright, what was that even about? I get the whole reeling in the gays, but did they have to push for the kiss in the first episode?”

“Would you have preferred to have them play a slow burn and just not having them kiss?” Kat asked, finding Cathy’s frustration with a television series endearing.

“From the looks of it, they aren’t even going to end up together. So, this just feels like fanservice… can you even have fanservice in a pilot?”

“Pretty sure you’re overthinking this, Cathy.”

“Maybe.” She sighed and closed her eyes. “It’s either that or the alcohol.”

“You’re tipsy already?”

“Don’t act like you aren’t.”

“We’re such a shame to the UK.” Kat giggled and put away their plates and empty bottles of beer aside. Last time they did this, they forgot to clean up and fell asleep while talking about the movie they’d just finished watching. Then, the next morning, they woke up to Lina lecturing them for nearly an hour about being adults and cleaning up after themselves. Needless to say, they learned their lesson.

“For the record, I think we’re much better at selling our fake relationship than them,” Kat said, referring to the characters in the show.

“Do you now?” Cathy propped herself up onto her elbows.

“Of course, because I mean we’re both actually into women, so that beats one of them.”

“You’re telling me Karma’s actually straight? Way to spoil the show.” Cathy pouted again, but Kat just rolled her eyes and lightly nudged Cathy’s arm.

“As if you were going to watch the rest of the show.”

“You’re probably right.”

“You’re going to have to be more precise, love. I’m right about many things.” Kat earned herself a bop on the nose for that comment.

“Has no one ever told you that arrogance isn’t attractive?” Cathy tsked and shook her head in disapproval.

“Some women find it hot,” Kat shrugged.

“But I am not ‘some women’. I am,” she said and paused for dramatic effect, “the one and only woman in your life.”

“You are aware there are four other women living under this roof, right?”

“Unless they are also your fake girlfriend, then I rest my case. I am your one and only woman.”

“Do you know how many men could only dream of you telling them that?”

Cathy gagged. “Why’d you have to ruin the moment and talk about… men.” She said the last word as she widened her eyes and raised her eyebrows.

“Because a man is the only reason we’re in this fake relationship… Kind of like Karma and Amy in the show.”

“Wait, does that make Henry our Liam?” Both girls pulled a face.

“God no. Never in a million years would I even _consider_ kissing him.”

“What? Do you consider kissing a lot of people in your life?” Cathy snorted. She and Kat rarely discussed their love lives. It wasn’t because they didn’t feel comfortable talking about it, but because there wasn’t much to say. They were both so focused on their education and future careers. And even though they weren’t restraining themselves from ‘finding love’, that card simply didn’t seem to be in their deck at the moment.

“I might have a list of people I would kiss,” Kat said nonchalantly.

“Katherine Howard, you do not,” Cathy responded, amused.

“It’s not like it’s a long list,” Kat proceeded to say, and this time, Cathy was surprised. She didn’t think the other girl was serious when she mentioned a list, but now, Kat definitely had her attention.

“Anyone I may know?”

“Possibly.” Cathy tried to read Kat’s face for any hints, but all she was met with was an ~~angelic~~ evil smile playing on Kat’s lips.

Cathy knew there was no pushing Kat around. If the younger girl wanted to tell her something, she would do so. She wasn’t the kind to play hard to get. There weren’t many things that Kat liked straight, but she did prefer it when people went straight to the point. So, she let Kat be, knowing she would eventually hear more about this list.

Being too curious for her own good (and a little impatient), Cathy started to think about ways to get Kat to divulge more information about this kissing list of hers. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t notice Kat observing her, knowing exactly what was going on in that (beautiful) head of hers. It wasn’t like it was hard anyways. Cathy excelled at many things, but maintaining a poker face was not her forte.

Kat used Cathy’s distracted mindset to just watch what would happen next. She didn’t actually have a list of people she would kiss, but upon mentioning it, she did start thinking about it. Her mind went to Cathy first seeing as she was the first and only person she saw.

She didn’t know if the little bit of alcohol she had consumed was playing tricks on her mind already, but as she stared at her friend, she noted how soft her lips looked. Kat never gave much thought to Cathy’s lips. Why would she? But at that moment, it dawned on her that there were these little things about her friend’s lips that she’d noticed in the past. They just weren’t conscious thoughts she possessed.

Like how Cathy’s lips would jut out a bit when she was in deep thought, like right now, which made them look even more kissable than usual. Kat paused. Than usual? Did she usually find her lips kissable?

“Kitty,” Cathy whispered, breaking Kat out of her trance.

Kat was the one who started out observing her friend who was enwrapped in her thoughts, but it was now her turn to be caught off guard. She didn’t even realize how close she’d gotten to her. Cathy was still on her back with her upper body weight resting on her elbows, but Kat, who was sitting next to Cathy and leaning on one arm, had somehow leaned so close towards the older girl that she could feel Cathy’s breath on her lips.

“Yeah?” Kat gulped and let her eyes travelling down to Cathy’s lips and back up to her eyes only to find the other girl had done the same thing.

Kat could feel her heart pounding like it was trying to break her ribcage, but her mind was all on Cathy. She watched her lick her lower lip before biting it. Kat had a tendency to do things she normally wouldn’t when she had a bit to drink, but kissing her friends wasn’t part of her tipsy habits. She would think about whether she would have to add this to her new habits later on, but for now, all Kat knew was that she felt this urge to just move an inch closer and feel those soft lips.

Yet, she didn’t move. No, that would be inaccurate. It was like she couldn’t move. All she was able to do was stare. But bless Cathy who decided she had had enough waiting and slowly pushed herself upwards. Kat’s eyes fluttered shut and right then,

_*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*_

Quickly, both backed away from the other girl as if they had been burned. The door remained closed, but they heard a slurred “Kitkat, you ‘wake” that was clearly from Anne and then a loud shushing noise followed by a “stop it, Kat’s probably asleep” from Catalina. There was a loud bang, and Kat guessed it was most likely Anne who had just passed out while Catalina was guiding her back to her bedroom because she heard a faint Spanish curse word and a grunt.

When they finally heard the sound of two doors closing, Cathy stood up and cleared her throat. “Well, I should go,” she said with her eyes looking anywhere but Kat. “I’ll bring the dishes downstairs.”

As much as she tried to sound normal, Kat couldn’t hide the disappointment in her voice. “Oh, alright... Good night, Cathy.”

“G’night,” she responded with her back to Kat, completely missing the look of hurt that washed over the younger girl’s face.

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

For weeks afterwards, they avoided each other like the plague. Kat didn’t drop by Cathy’s campus anymore and spent all her free time rehearsing at school. On Cathy’s side, she changed her morning routine to leave home earlier and take the tube alone to school instead of leaving with Kat or wait for Anna to drive them both. Even at home, they didn’t interact much. Their conversations had been limited to the occasional “good morning” when they bumped into one another on the way to the bathroom and then Cathy would tell Kat, “go ahead.”

If any of their housemates found their behaviour strange, they didn’t mention it. Surprisingly, it probably would’ve been more helpful had one of them brought it up, even just as a joke, because Kat and Cathy were now, much like they were in the kitchen months ago, just waiting for the other one to bring up the… incident.

It was like they had this unspoken agreement that they wouldn’t talk about it. Kat thought it would be easy. Just one single topic they wouldn’t touch. But she learned the day after their near-kiss, all she could think about was their incident. So, the best way to not talk about it was to not talk at all. And Kat absolutely hated it.

Despite living with Cathy and seeing her nearly every morning, Kat missed her. She missed going into the older girl’s room and learn new strange historical facts. She missed being to talk to Cathy about the next show they wanted to see in the West End. She missed coming up with absurd alternate plots for existing theatre productions. She missed listening to Cathy rant about inaccurate descriptions (or lack thereof) of the ‘female experience’ in novels written by men.

She just missed Cathy.

Part of her really wanted to let her know, but another part of her felt conflicted about this feeling because that would imply something she couldn’t admit. Something she didn’t want to admit because she didn’t want it to be true.

Kat couldn’t… have feelings for Cathy.

No, it would make things weird between them when everything was perfect the way they were. They didn’t just get along. Kat felt like Cathy understood her on a whole other level that felt so special that she wasn’t able to put it into words. She could compare it to her relationship with Anne, but it was different. She didn’t know how. She just knew it was, and she knew she couldn’t afford to lose that.

So, she couldn’t tell Cathy she missed her. On some days, Kat refused to even admit to herself that she missed Cathy. She immersed herself in schoolwork, which wasn’t hard seeing as it was the end of the term. She also picked up extra shifts at the café (whenever Cathy wasn’t also working there of course) to keep busy.

But it turns out that it was on her busier days that Kat had her moments of weakness where she was too tired to fight against herself. She let herself process what had gone through her mind that night. She reflected on how her body reacted to being so close in proximity to Cathy, to her face, to those damn lips of hers.

She wanted to kiss Cathy that night.

She fully intended to kiss Cathy that night

She would have kissed Cathy that night if it weren’t for the interruption.

The most important realization she had though was that she still wanted to kiss Cathy.

She was so fucked. Thinking she was home alone, Kat yelled into one of the pillows on the sofa and breathed out as she just laid there in the living room. Then, Cathy appeared out of nowhere with a frantic look on her face.

“I heard you scream from my room, are you okay?” She asked, her eyes darting around the room seemingly searching for any sign of a threat.

“I-uh-I-no… Yeah, no. I’m fine… aren’t you working today?” Kat stammered, feeling the need to hit herself in the face for how incoherent she sounded.

“No, I… thought you were working today,” she replied sheepishly. A moment of silence passed until both chuckled lightly at their predicament.

“Look,” they said at the same time which resulted in another round of awkward chuckles.

“Go ahead,” Kat said, repeating the only words Cathy had been saying to her as of late.

“I wanted to apologize for that night when we… almost kissed.”

“Cathy, if anyone has to apologize, it’s me. I was the one who leaned forwards.”

“But you were tipsy—”

“So were you,” Kat reminded the other girl with a pointed look.

Cathy scratched the back of her neck and reluctantly agreed. Kat knew Cathy probably felt like she was taking advantage of her, especially given dating track record, but she believed that if there was someone to blame, it would be her for initiating the almost-kiss.

“I still wanted you to know that if you’re upset with me, I totally get it.”

“I’m not,” Kat assured her and paused. Should she say it? She shouldn’t… but she really wanted to. No, telling Cathy how she felt would only— “I am kind of upset that we didn’t actually kiss though.” Well, there it was. She couldn’t take it back now.

Cathy, for all her nervousness, didn’t falter. “Does that mean you would want to go on a date with me?”

Kat definitely felt like she was having an aneurysm now. “I’d love to,” she managed to respond without sounding like a dying whale.

“I was thinking of a picnic?” She asked and quickly added. “At the park we usually go to?”

Kat nodded. “It’s a date,” she squeaked, “which you already know because you’re the one who asked me. To go. To the park. For a picnic.” Oh dear God, someone needed to interrupt her before she exploded out of embarrassment for her nonsensical rambling.

“Great,” Cathy said, even though the unsure expression on her face said otherwise.

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

Not great.

A picnic at the park they usually went to? What was that supposed to mean? Their park was near Cathy’s campus where _he_ would often be. Was this date not an actual date then? Was this like when they were at Anne’s parents’ house? No, that didn’t make sense because Kat actually just wanted to hold Cathy’s hand back then. She didn’t do it in case he was there, even though that was what she claimed it was for.

Kat’s head hurt from all this thinking. She needed a distraction, and Anne Boleyn’s hug attack could not have been better timed. “How’s my baby cous’ doin’ on this fine Saturday morning?” Anne asked with her arms wrapped around Kat’s head and her legs wrapped around Kat’s torso. Kat struggled, but eventually managed to get out of Anne’s grip and sat up properly on her bed.

“I was good until you attacked me.” Kat stuck her tongue out in response to Anne looking wounded by her words. “Don’t you have a show today?”

“Nope, it’s my day off. That means we get to have special cousin time!” Anne grinned, but a trace of an evil smirk threatened to break out.

“As long as you’re not dressing me up like you used to when we were kids, I’m down with whatever.”

“In my defence, you looked adorable as a little Queen.”

“You said I looked adorable when you dressed me up as a clown,” Kat countered.

“And you did. You look cute in pretty much everything,” Anne said as she pinched Kat’s cheek. Her younger cousin grimaced and tried to swat Anne’s hand away.

“Glad _someone_ thinks I look cute,” Kat grumbled.

“What was that?” Anne asked, her voice no longer carrying a lighthearted tone it did just a second earlier.

“Nothing.” From the moment, Kat replied, she knew Anne wouldn’t believe her. Over the years, Anne got to learn all of Kat’s quirks and today, she knew her like the palm of her hand. Kat didn’t even need to say a word and Anne would know something was wrong.

“I don’t buy it. Spit it out,” Anne demanded. Kat didn’t budge. “Katherine Howard.” Anne never referred to her cousin as ‘Katherine’ let alone her full name. It almost sounded foreign to hear it from her cousin’s mouth.

Unlike Cathy, Anne wasn’t as patient. She wasn’t the type of person who thought she could have what she wanted, when she wanted. But this was her baby cousin. If Kat wasn’t feeling well, she needed to know as soon as possible so she could fix it. Or try to fix it. Anne strongly believed that was her duty as Kat’s older cousin, friend and legal guardian.

And Kat learned that there was no way of fighting Anne unless she wanted to lose. “There’s something I have to tell you.” Seeing Anne ready to listen, Kat continued, “I think Cathy and I may have gone a little too far with this fake dating thing. Like we were in over our heads and didn’t think this through.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, ‘cause I think I really like Cathy like _really_ like her and now she’s asked me on a date, but I don’t know if it’s a real date or if it’s a fake date,” Kat said in one breath.

“Okay, okay, slow down there, sweetheart,” Anne said as she scooted over to sit closer to Kat. “Explain to me what’s been going on.”

So, Kat went over everything from the beginning, detailing how their fake relationship progressed and how she honestly hadn’t even seen him in these past months, but kept acting like Cathy’s girlfriend. “And then we almost kissed.”

“Wait, who kissed who?” Anne asked, a little too loudly. Kat hurriedly pressed her hand over Anne’s mouth to shush her.

“Nobody kissed anyone. We had a bit to drink one night and next thing I knew, I was nearly kissing Cathy.”

“Why didn’t you?” Anne was looking at her like she had lost her mind.

“We got interrupted… by you and Lina.”

“W-what?” Anne was caught off guard by that and Kat thought she saw her cheeks adopt a light shade of pink. She would definitely have to ask Anne what that was about some other time.

“You came home drunk and you knocked on my door for I don’t know what. We also heard Lina with you. I think she helped you go to bed?” Kat explained. “I think it was like nearly two months ago.”

“Two months?! I should’ve given Cathy the ‘big cousin talk’ two months ago?”

“You don’t need to give anyone any talks and we are _not_ dating… well, not for real anyway,” Kat said grimly.

“But you want to,” Anne said tenderly.

Kat shrugged. “I mean I don’t know. Do I actually have feelings for her or do I just feel this way because we’ve been acting couple-y? One day we were normal and the next all I could think about was kissing her. How does that even happen?”

“You could just kiss her,” she suggested as if that was the most rational thing to do.

“Yeah, I should just go up to her and plant one on her,” Kat deadpanned.

“No, smart-arse. Ask her on a date—”

“Yeah about that,” Kat started and pursed her lips.

“Oh my God, did my baby cousin woman up and asked someone out?” It was almost like there were stars in Anne’s eyes.

“I thought you didn’t want me to date because I’m your ‘baby cousin’? And Cathy’s the one who asked me out. I just told her I wanted to kiss her,” Kat said that last part more quietly, feeling shy talking about this with Anne. She had opened up to Anne about her previous relationships/flirtationships, but this didn’t feel like anything she’d been through before.

“Well, I don’t like seeing you grow up so fast, but at least I trust Cathy to not break your heart. Though if she does, I won’t hesitate to pay her a ‘special visit’ like I did with the boys who messed with you.”

“You could never harm Cathy.” Kat rolled her eyes.

“I could!” Anne refuted. “But I won’t have to because Cathy obviously already has a big crush on you. So, you’re all set. All you’ve got to do now is kiss her and see if there are sparks.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Trust me, it’s a great idea. Now, do you want some kissing tips?”

That was the last thing Kat wanted from her cousin. She quickly pushed Anne out of her bedroom before she started to talk about what she ‘learned in France’. Even after their talk though, Kat hadn’t gotten anywhere with her game plan in figuring out what this date meant for them, and if she had actual feelings for Cathy.

She thought about going to ask Cathy about upfront. It seemed like the best option, but upon arriving in front of her room, she was met with four powder blue walls staring back at her and no signs of Cathy. She was pretty sure the older girl was home because she’d seen her do the dishes earlier, but as she wandered around the house, she literally bumped into Anna before finding her.

“Woah, you alright?” Anna asked as she helped stabilize Kat.

“Have you seen Cathy?”

“I think I saw her enter Lina’s room? Why?”

“Just wanted to ask her something.” Kat waved it off and looked up as if she could see Catalina's bedroom on the third floor from the bottom of the staircase.

“Kit,” Anna called her. “What's going on?” Kat glanced back up and then back at Anna. She grabbed the taller girl's hand and more or less dragged her upstairs. Once she closed the door behind her, she faced a confused Anna standing in the middle of her bedroom. “I still don’t get what’s happening.”

“I need your help with something. Advice. I need your advice,” Kat clarified. “Have you ever had a bad first kiss?”

“Pretty sure you only have one first kiss,” Anna replied playfully.

“I meant the first kiss with someone new.”

“Oh, yeah.” She said simply. “Kissing when you’re both drunk isn’t exactly the best recipe for a good kiss. So, I’ve had my fair share of slobbery kisses. Wait a second, you and Cathy kiss? You’re pushing this whole fake dating thing that far?”

“No, we aren’t kissing. Well, not yet. I think?” Kat frowned as her frustration about her predicament intensified. “Basically, she asked me on a date, but I have no idea if it’s a real date, but if it is, I don’t want to mess it up.”

Before Anna could reply, they heard a knock at the door. Jane’s head peaked in with a smile on her face. “Hey, sorry to interrupt, but I’ve got your pile of clean clothes for you, Kitten.”

“Nonsense, you’re not interrupting,” Anna told her and beckoned her over. “I actually think you came right on time to help Kit here with a little problem.” Kat sort of saw Jane as a mother figure at that point, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to talk about kissing girls with her, but Anna insisted on having Jane there. “It’s better to have different opinions on kissing.”

Jane excitedly put down the laundry basket on the floor and joined the pair on the bed to sandwich Kat between her and Anna. “Are you and Catherine finally together for real?” Her eyes were practically sparkling with joy at the idea of Kat and Cathy being together, which Kat found endearing, but also a bit strange because Jane had never brought it up before.

“I didn’t know you were rooting for us,” Kat said with a chuckle.

“Well, you—” Jane cut herself short and schooled her features after her eyes landed on Anna.

When Kat turned around, she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary though. She was just smiling back at her. “What is it?”

“Nothing, dear,” Jane said a little too quickly and then giggled as an attempt to make it believable, but Kat could tell that she was missing something. Whatever it was, she didn’t bother finding out. She had more pressing issues to deal with. “So, it’s you and Catherine right? You’re not seeing someone else right?” Jane lowered her voice.

“Yes, it’s Cathy,” Kat confirmed, fighting off the blush she felt creeping up.

“You’ve got nothing to worry about. I just know you’ll woo her off her feet. Or she’ll woo you! Or you can woo each other… I’m not really sure what the dynamics between you two look like romantically.”

“I think Cathy could top,” Anna offered.

“I am _not_ talking about that with you two,” Kat declared and stood up to give them both a serious look.

“It’s not like you’re going to talk about that with Anne.” Anna smirked and crossed her arms. Reminded of her earlier conversation with her cousin, Kat winced. “Hold on, did you actually talk about this with her?”

“Sort of. I stopped her when she asked me if I wanted kissing tips after telling me to just kiss Cathy and ‘see if there are sparks’.”

“That’s not terrible advice. Although, you shouldn’t just, you know, kiss her without warning,” she said seriously. “Be gentle, lead her into it. Flirt a little here and there, switch between looking into her eyes and down at her lips.” Kat wouldn’t have an issue with that last one. “Then push a curl away from her face before cupping her face and kissing her,” Jane explained and smiled dreamily.

“Ooh! And play footsie with her.” Anna winked, but then winced when Jane reached over and smacked her arm.

“I can’t, we’re going on a picnic.”

“You can always figure something out.” Anna shrugged.

“Don’t play footsie with her,” Jane warned. “You want a relationship out of this, don’t you? She’ll think you only want to hook up.”

“Janey knows what hooking up is?” Anna teased and backed away before the blonde could smack her again.

“I should have you know that I’m not that old,” Jane huffed. “I know how to use urban dictionary.” Kat and Anna stared at her for a moment before they broke out laughing. And any conversation about kissing was long forgotten, being instead replaced by the trials and tribulations of Jane exploring stan Twitter.

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

Friday couldn’t have come faster. Kat was excited about her date with Cathy, but she couldn’t deny that she felt like vomiting thinking about that night. All week, she kept thinking about what Anne, Anna, and Jane had told her. Over the past few days, Kat was able to figure out that she did indeed want to actually give this relationship a try.

During her breaks, Kat kept thinking back about all those times her heart warmed at the sight of Cathy doing the most mundane activities like when she would sway to the music playing in the background while she did the dishes. This wasn’t just a small crush. Kat really, really, _really_ liked Cathy, and she wanted this to work. She wanted this to be a real date.

Yet, that was the one thing she still wasn’t sure about.

She had tried to ask Cathy about it nearly every single day leading up to their date, but every time, Cathy kept shutting her down the moment Kat said the word ‘date’, claiming that it was a surprise and she wouldn’t reveal anything. She even tried to ask her that morning, and Cathy put her hands over her ears while walking away when she realized what Kat was going to say.

So, there Kat was, standing in front of the mirror in her bedroom, looking at the light pink summer dress covering her body. “Alright, Howard. You can do this. Who cares if you don’t know if this is a real date or not? You want this to be real, so make it real,” she said to her reflection. “Just make Cathy fall for you.” Kat put her hands on her hips and puffed up her chest. She’d read that this was supposed to help with boosting her confidence, but she wasn’t sure if this would help because now, she was doubting that she could make Cathy fall for her.

She should know if this was a real date, shouldn’t she? Wouldn’t it be obvious if Cathy was genuinely interested in her romantically?

Kat grunted and shook her head. “No, be confident,” she commanded. She looked herself in the eye and nodded. Her phone buzzed, notifying her that Cathy had texted her. She had convinced Catalina to let her borrow her car and was waiting for her in the driveway. Kat grabbed her denim jacket, her purse, and her phone before heading downstairs.

“Kat,” Catalina called from the living room just as Kat reached the front door. She walked backwards and poked her head in to see her and Jane watching her with a smile. “Be safe, sweetheart. Both of you.”

“We will. See you later.” She waved goodbye and headed out the door. Outside, she was met with Anne walking back towards the house. At the sight of Anne’s mischievous grin, Kat’s shoulders slumped. “What did you say to Cathy?”

“I just gave her my big cousin talk!” Anne put her hands in the air.

“Anne—”

“Come on, you haven’t dated anyone seriously in so long. I wanted to have my big cousin moment, and it’s not like Cathy’s going to run away.” She added, “I mean she literally can’t. She lives here.”

“Fine, fine. But if this goes badly, I’m blaming it on your ‘talk’.”

“All good with me,” Anne responded and gave Kat a tight hug. “Have fun, Kitkat, you deserve this,” she murmured into her ear.

“Thanks, Annie.”

Kat big goodbye to Anne and finally made her way towards the passenger side. Cathy quickly got out and opened the door for her. “And they said chivalry is dead,” Kat teased, but not without noticing Cathy’s casual chic ensemble. She was sporting a loose navy blue and white striped blouse tucked into black jeans, and paired with simple white sneakers. Cathy just winked in response to Kat’s comment.

“You look gorgeous,” the older girl said once she was back in the driver’s seat.

“Not so bad yourself, love.” Kat beamed and buckled her seat belt.

The short drive to the park went smoothly. Both had just spent their entire day apart from another (with Kat working a full day at the café while Cathy stayed home), so they caught up about their day on the way there. At their destination, Kat picked up the picnic basket from the trunk while Cathy pulled out a picnic blanket and placed a small portable lamp in the middle before adding some fairy lights around them.

Kat melted at how Cathy had planned this so well. This had to be a real date. They’d never done anything this intricate to fake it. From then on, their date went by just as smoothly as their car ride.

Sort of.

They started with a bit of champagne. Cathy wanted to toast to surviving another school year. “And of course, being on this date with you,” she added with a twinkle in her eyes. Food came next, and Kat had to admit that sandwiches never crossed her mind when she thought about first date foods, but the vegan montaditos Cathy made (and probably altered from Catalina’s recipe) were to die for. As they munched on their food, they continued to talk about their day. Cathy revealed that she was totally panicking that morning because she thought Anna had brought her sandwiches to work by accident, but it was just Anne messing with her. It was all going so well until Kat mentioned him.

She didn’t mean to talk about him, but she was ranting about this customer who was being rude to their co-worker when he came up into conversation. “He honestly reminded me so much of Henry, the hair, the scruffy beard.” Kat shuddered. “Glad we don’t have to see him and pretend to date anymore.”

Just like that, the whole mood changed. Kat didn’t notice it at first, but soon she realized that Cathy wasn’t as chatty as before. She wasn’t leaning as closely towards Kat and it just felt off. Kat wasn’t sure what had initiated the switch, but when it dawned on her, she wanted to kick herself. Cathy had changed the subject and started talking about wanting to learn a new language during the summer, and as much as she tried to be in the moment, Kat was only half paying attention to what Cathy was saying. All she could think about was that she’d messed this up.

“I’m sorry,” Kat said after a beat of silence.

“For what?” Cathy tilted her head curiously.

“You know, for bringing him up. I didn’t mean to dampen the mood.” Kat looked down as she chewed on the inside of her cheeks.

“Hey, you didn’t do anything wrong,” she told her as she rested her hand above Kat’s and smiled at her reassuringly. “We’re both here. The night is still young. There’s plenty we can still do.”

“Yeah? Like what?” Kat looked down at the shy smile displayed on Cathy’s lips and then looked back up into those mesmerizing eyes of hers. She started to put more weight on her right arm, getting closer to Cathy. She closed her eyes and felt Cathy’s hot breath upon her lips. Just as she felt the older girl’s lips brush hers, she sensed her backing away.

Opening her eyes, she saw Cathy sitting back in her original position and rubbing her thighs. “Um so, anyways, you were asking me what I had in mind?” Cathy cleared her throat. “I was thinking we could just walk around town and maybe stop for ice cream like we used to? We haven’t done that in a while.”

Kat gave her a perplexed look. Was this a game? Was this because she mentioned him earlier?

She clenched her jaw and gave her a strained smile. “Sure.”

“You don’t look sure…” Cathy frowned. “We can do something else if you want.”

‘Something else.’ They were going to be doing ‘something else’, but then Cathy pulled away. Maybe she didn’t want to kiss Kat. Maybe this wasn’t a real date after all. “You know what, just take me home.”

“What’s wrong?” Cathy sounded worried. Kat almost scoffed. She was just messing with her now.

“Nothing,” she replied curtly.

“Something’s obviously wrong.” Cathy retorted. “Please, just tell me?”

Kat repeated her previous answer, and Cathy continued to press her to find out the truth. This wasn’t like normal times. Cathy needed to know if she did something to upset her.

“Kitty, just tell me what’s wrong,” Cathy pleaded.

And finally, Kat exploded. “You!”

“Me?” Cathy asked indignantly.

“Yes, you! You with your,” Kat grumbled, “stupid gorgeous face and your soft curly hair and your beautiful kissable lips! Do you do this a lot? Make everyone fall for you, only to break their hearts?”

“Oh, you’ve got some nerve!” Cathy scoffed. “You’re the one who’s know to be the charmer in the house! You’re so damn sweet to everyone, even to assholes who deserve to get a stick shoved up their arse. And I thought you were actually interested I me, but then you started saying things like you’re happy you don’t have to pretend to date me anymore? Was I really that insufferable as your fake girlfriend?”

“I never said that! And you said that it was fine that I mentioned him!” Kat argued.

“Because you looked really worried and I wanted to make you feel better!” Cathy threw her hands in the air and shook her head.

“Do you know what would’ve actually helped me feel better? A damn kiss! Why did you even pull away?”

“I didn’t want to take advantage of you!” Cathy said, as if that was the most reasonable thing ever.

Kat just groaned and put her face in her hands. “How would you be taking advantage of me?”

“I didn’t want you to feel forced to kiss me just because I wanted to! If you thought this was a fake date—”

“Me, thinking this is a fake date? I thought you thought this was a fake date?”

“Why would I think that? I clearly asked you out.”

They both stopped their screaming match to try and process what they’d both just said. (And thanked God that the park was pretty much empty.)

“Are we on a date right now? A real one?” Kat asked, this time more quietly.

“That was my intention,” Cathy responded sincerely.

So, they were both on the same page. Both just sat there in silence, thinking back about what they’d just revealed (yelled) to each other.

“You think I’m a charmer?” Kat looked up timidly at Cathy.

“You’ve just got this thing that makes people gravitate towards you. Like there’s this magnetic field around you that just pulls people in. And I wouldn’t change that for the world,” she explained, not breaking eye contact. “Did you… did you mean what you said about me earlier?”

“What? The part where I was basically drooling over you?” Kat chuckled. “Of course.”

“I never knew that you saw me like that”.

“I don’t think I, myself, knew I saw you that way until a little while ago,” Kat confessed.

“Better late than never?” Cathy offered.

Kat hummed in agreement. “So… now what?”

“There’s this thing I wanted to do.” Cathy’s voice was barely above a whisper as her eyes zeroed onto Kat’s lips. And as Kat closed her eyes once more, feeling her heart want to jump out of her chest, she finally got what she’d been waiting for.

Cathy’s lips were even softer than she’d imagined. She tasted faintly of vanilla, and when she pulled away, Kat found herself chasing her lips. “Someone’s eager,” Cathy commented, no malice in her voice.

“Can you blame me? I’ve wanted this for at least a month a half now.” Kat rested her forehead on Cathy’s shoulder to try and hide the blush dusting her cheeks.

“At least there’s no more waiting now.” Cathy tilted away to get Kat to look at her. She placed a loose strand of her behind Kat’s ear, then cupped her face with one hand while using her other hand as support. “I’m all yours,” she told her and leaned back in for another kiss.

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

“What was that?” Kat narrowed her eyes at Anne. All six housemates were lounging in the sunroom which was decorated with the plants Jane had been taking care of for the last few years. It had been nearly a month since Kat and Cathy’s first date, but they wanted to take things slow and keep their relationship as private as they could while living with four other women, one of whom was related to Kat. So, they hadn’t given them any details about their date and relationship until now. Cathy was recounting the last part of their date where they unfolded their misunderstanding when Kat’s eyes caught the flash of movement between Anne and Catalina.

“I saw something. What did you give Lina?” Anne looked like a deer in headlights and stayed quiet, but Catalina wasn’t fazed by Kat’s accusing gaze. Whatever it was, Jane and Anna seemed to be in the know while Cathy was just as lost as Kat. “Annie,” Kat called, her eyebrows knitting together. “Do you not trust me with your secrets? I thought you saw me like a sister…”

Kat knew that this probably wasn’t a big deal, but Anne’s silence piqued her curiosity. She also knew that this was a method that always worked in getting Anne to give her what she wanted. And this time was no different. “We were betting on you two,” Anne admitted.

“The four of us all were,” Anna added as an attempt to take the blame off Anne and Catalina.

“We were betting on how long it would take for you two to pull yourselves together and start actually dating.” For her part, Catalina did not look anywhere as guilty or regretful as Anne did.

“And I won!” Jane beamed. Suddenly, it all made sense. Them accepting their plan nearly from the get-go, nobody mentioning anything about Kat and Cathy’s strange cold war, Jane shutting up when she almost revealed to Kat their bet when she and Anna were giving her advice. It was all because of their bet.

Neither Kat nor Cathy were really offended that their friends made a bet on them. Mostly because the winning prize was that Anne, Anna, and Catalina would pay for their meal. But Kat still sulked a bit later on when they all parted ways and the couple were back on Kat’s bed.

“You are aware that you don’t have to pretend to be upset just so I’ll cuddle with you right?” Kat felt Cathy’s chest rumble under her head and the older girl chuckled lightly while stroking Kat’s hair. “I’m your girlfriend now, so we can cuddle all you want, no need for excuses… not like you ever gave any excuses to cuddle in the past though.”

Kat was still pouting, but she couldn’t help the smile that spread across her lips at the sound of Cathy referring to herself as her girlfriend. They had made it official pretty much immediately after their first kiss. Why wait when they both knew they wanted to give this relationship a try?

“I love you,” Kat said, gazing lovingly into Cathy’s eyes.

“You mean it for real this time?” Cathy was saying it in a lighthearted manner, but Kat kept a serious expression.

“I think I always meant it that way. I just didn’t realize it yet,” she told her sincerely.

“I love you so much,” Cathy cooed as she lazily twirled strands of Kat’s hair between her fingers. “So, we have the whole afternoon to do whatever we want. Do you have any suggestions?”

“There is this one thing I wanted to do.” Kat gave Cathy a sly smile as she echoed the phrase Cathy had said on their first date. And at that moment, she thought that this whole fake dating thing wasn’t a bad idea at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was the final part of the fic! but i'm adding a third bonus chapter that is more from cathy's pov.


	3. bonus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hii so here's the bonus chapter of take a hint !! i'm really sorry i went mia for nearly a month there. i was so drained after work and then i had my wisdom teeth removed, but i'm back (ish). i'm starting uni next week so i might have to be inactive for a while again, but we'll see. for now, enjoy this final part!

Kissing her friends wasn’t something Cathy partook in. For her, kissing was an intimate act that should be reserved for people who had a special connection with one another that went beyond friendship. The most she would agree to were kisses on the cheek, which she still reserved for her closest friends. But then, one night, she threw any kind of belief system she had out the window, and she wasn’t totally upset about it.

The only regret she had was that she didn’t go all the way, that she wasn’t just a bit bolder so that she would have actually kissed Kat that night.

It never occurred to her that that was a desire of hers. Of course, she found Kat attractive. With her sparkling brown eyes, the cute touch of pink that adorned the tips of her hair, her adorable giggles. Anyone with half a brain cell would find Katherine Howard beautiful.

Cathy remembered thinking that the first time they met in class, back when Kat was still pursuing a history degree. Something about her just made Cathy want to talk to her and become her friend. The stars aligned and now, a year later, they were living together, and Cathy could easily call Kat one of her closest friends.

But that was it.

Kat was her friend, and there was nothing in the world she would exchange their friendship for. Certainly not a sloppy kiss while they were intoxicated. That was what she would have said not even a few weeks ago. Yet, here she was, staring out the window of her classroom as her mind replayed that scene in her head. She wondered what the kiss would have felt like. How would it have played out?

Would it have been a simple peck? If it were, would it have led to a make out session? Would they have been too impulsive, clacking their teeth together? Or would they have had more control over it and one of them would’ve had their tongue slip into the other’s mouth? Would Cathy have threaded her fingers through Kat’s silky hair? Would Kat have pushed her back onto the floor? Would she—

Cathy gulped. She was looking _way_ too much into this. Nobody should be thinking that much about kissing their friend.

In her peripheral vision, she noticed people moving and gathered that class was dismissed which meant that she had zoned out for the better half of her lecture. Cathy groaned as she walked towards the bus stop to head home, thinking about how much reading she would have to do to catch up. If only she hadn’t gotten lost thinking about what kissing Kat would be like. Although, it wasn’t like it was her fault. Kat was just so adorable. Everything she did made Cathy swoon. From the way she always threw her head back when she laughed to the way she would let her glasses nearly slip off her nose before pushing them back because she was too invested in her reading. So, it wasn’t Cathy’s fault that she wanted to kiss Kat in moments like those.

Cathy nodded to herself, satisfied with her reasoning. Then, she dropped the smile she was wearing.

Oh. Fuck.

She wanted to kiss Kat.

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

She couldn’t want to kiss Kat. She was her friend, a friend with whom she was living with, no less. Cathy refused to let some silly crush ruin one of the closest friendships she’d ever had.

Wait, no, not crush. Just feelings.

“What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?” Cathy nearly dropped the plate she was washing before turning her head towards one of the entrances to the kitchen. She didn’t have the chance to dispute that claim since she then added, “you haven’t been washing the dishes for a solid minute. As beautiful as Jane’s plants are, I don’t think they would be enough to entrap you in a trance.”

Cathy took a moment to make sure nobody else around by poking her head out of the room and looking both left and right. She then felt a bit dumb because she remembered that nobody else was home.

“I may or may not have feelings for Kitty,” she blurted.

Catalina snorted. “Took you long enough.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I thought you two were dating from the moment Kat brought you home to work on that project of yours. You were so close from the get-go, I thought that there was no way you were only friends. There’s this look in your eye that only appears when your attention is on Kat. And even though Kat insisted that there was nothing romantic going on between the two of you when I mentioned it after the first time you came over, her stuttering and flushed cheeks weren’t very convincing. I knew it was just a matter of time before both of you got your head of your arse.”

Cathy gaped at the older woman for a solid five seconds, trying to wrap her brain around this revelation. “Are you saying that Kitty fancied me this whole time?”

“Well, I wouldn’t know because I’m not Kat.” Catalina chuckled as Cathy rolled her eyes at her explanation. “Don’t you think you should ask _her_ that?”

The answer to Catalina’s question seemed so simple. Yes, she should ask Kat. But Cathy was not wired for simple things. No, her mind preferred going through a million hoops on fire before getting to an answer. This was no different.

Her first option would be to have this discussion with Kat, but that would potentially lead to things become awkward between them and that would most likely lead to a falling out, which would make living together very difficult. The second option would be to not approach Kat about this at all, but the outcomes of that didn’t seem desirable either, what with these feelings possibly turning into an unrequited love situation. Cathy didn’t have time to think about a third option since she felt Catalina tug the gloves off her hands.

“I’m not done with the dishes yet,” she squeaked.

“No worries, we can deal with that later,” said Catalina as she put away the gloves and apron before sitting Cathy down on one of the other stools. “Jane will understand.”

“I don’t know about that. She seemed pretty upset that last week when I forgot to do the dishes after class. Said something about her chore wheel being all messed up.”

“She was just having a bad week because some of the kids at school decided to use the free condoms she gave them for a water balloon fight in the hallways. But that’s beside the point.”

“What is the point exactly?” Cathy asked.

“The point is that you need to ask Kat out. For real this time.”

“I what?” Cathy nearly shouted. She was so glad that nobody else was home. “Why is it that I have to ask her out?”

She shrugged. “Why not?”

“Really?” Cathy looked at her, unimpressed.

“I’m serious here. Tell me why you shouldn’t ask her out?”

“Oh, I don’t know maybe because she’s like one of my closest friends ever.”

“How is that a bad thing? That means that you’re saved from having boring and uncomfortable small talk during the first stages of dating.”

“That will only be true if she says yes.”

“You think she’d reject you?”

“It’s a possibility.”

“Honey, everything’s a possibility. She could respond with ‘my favourite colour is pink’.”

“I don’t see how she would ever reply with that.” Cathy frowned in confusion.

“Exactly! Do you know why?”

“I feel like you’re about to tell me why.”

“Even if it’s a possibility, it doesn’t mean it’s likely to happen.”

“But rejection is very likely!”

“Why would she do that? I swear if you give me your ‘friends’ excuse again, I will start yelling at you in Spanish. What’s wrong with turning a friendship into a romantic relationship? I’m pretty sure it’s one of the best things that can happen. You’ve already built a solid base of trust, and you know you enjoy each other’s presence. Now, you just add some more kissing and… you know other stuff. It’s an all-around win to me. So, tell me, what are you afraid of?”

Cathy didn’t say anything back, feeling stumped. Catalina was right. This was probably one of the best scenarios, yet there was this ominous feeling of dread that kept her from making a move. And it didn’t click until Catalina mentioned fear.

“I’m scared of losing her,” she admitted in a small voice with her eyes glued to the floor, unable to look anywhere else as she took in her own words.

“Oh, cariña,” Catalina cooed.

“Let’s say she likes me back,” Cathy proposed. “What makes you say that she won’t stop liking me back eventually?”

“Well, I can’t guarantee that a break up isn’t in the cards for you, but you don’t know what makes up your deck either. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a try. What’s that saying again? Better to love and lost than to never have loved at all? Besides, even if you do have a falling out in the event of a potential break up, who says you can’t become friends again? I’m sure you’ll find a way to… find each other again,” said Catalina as she caressed Cathy’s shoulder.

Cathy nodded and melted into Catalina’s touch, letting herself fall in her arms like she used to when she was a child. “You give pretty good advice.”

“So, I’ve been told.”

“Is there any advice you could give me about asking her out?” Just then, they heard the front door open and loud chattering filling the home, signalling that the other four were back.

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” Catalina winked. “You always do.”

Cathy wasn’t sure about that, but seeing everyone suddenly join them in the kitchen, she knew that their conversation would have to end here for now.

She would figure it out. She always did.

And she would get to finally kiss Kat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there you go. that's the end of take a hint:) i might add on to this au, but for now i only plan on having this fic and the backstory fic in this au. i hope you liked it and thank you for reading, giving kudos and commenting!

**Author's Note:**

> come yell about six with me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/hauntingfletch) or [tumblr](https://allyouwannaparr.tumblr.com/)


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